And the results are just slightly different, too. For me, the choice of which to use is timing: when do I want to start? How much time do I have? When do I want to eat?
I don’t use the slow cooker a lot, but I really do like tossing all that stuff in there right after breakfast, setting it to low, and revisiting it around dinner time. Plus, all day long the house smells wonderful! Two things. First, contrary to what you might think, you can dry out food in a slow cooker! Don’t set it on high and then let it go all day, then add an extra couple hours. Second, of the three methods, the slow cooker seems, to me, to give the least complicated results. The food tastes great. If you didn’t know it could be better, you’d be fine.
The Dutch oven, to me, gives the best tasting food. If something takes 8 hours on low in the slow cooker, it takes 2-3 hours in the Dutch oven. Plus, you can use that son of a gun anywhere there is heat! Put it in the oven, put it on your gas grill, put it in the fire, put coals over and under it, hang it from a hook… get it hot, like 325°-350°, and check it in a couple hours. The same caveat applies for drying out the food, but because you’re not experiencing the time dilation of an all day braise, it’s easier to keep an eye on it. And, what happens in a Dutch oven is a really intense concentration of flavors, something you don’t really get in a slow cooker or on a stove top. Try it with your Sunday sauce some day, instead of simmering it on the stove!
I use the pressure cooker for those times when it’s 4:30 and I want short ribs! My opinion is that the food is better than from the slow cooker, but not as good as from the Dutch oven. It does a better job of concentrating flavors than the slow cooker. But cleaning the pressure cooker is a PITA, compared to the other two. And it has a smaller effective volume when you allow for the space needed to build pressure. As with the other two methods, you can dry out your food here, too! Pay attention to the recommended cooking time.
That’s my take on it.
I don’t use the slow cooker a lot, but I really do like tossing all that stuff in there right after breakfast, setting it to low, and revisiting it around dinner time. Plus, all day long the house smells wonderful! Two things. First, contrary to what you might think, you can dry out food in a slow cooker! Don’t set it on high and then let it go all day, then add an extra couple hours. Second, of the three methods, the slow cooker seems, to me, to give the least complicated results. The food tastes great. If you didn’t know it could be better, you’d be fine.
The Dutch oven, to me, gives the best tasting food. If something takes 8 hours on low in the slow cooker, it takes 2-3 hours in the Dutch oven. Plus, you can use that son of a gun anywhere there is heat! Put it in the oven, put it on your gas grill, put it in the fire, put coals over and under it, hang it from a hook… get it hot, like 325°-350°, and check it in a couple hours. The same caveat applies for drying out the food, but because you’re not experiencing the time dilation of an all day braise, it’s easier to keep an eye on it. And, what happens in a Dutch oven is a really intense concentration of flavors, something you don’t really get in a slow cooker or on a stove top. Try it with your Sunday sauce some day, instead of simmering it on the stove!
I use the pressure cooker for those times when it’s 4:30 and I want short ribs! My opinion is that the food is better than from the slow cooker, but not as good as from the Dutch oven. It does a better job of concentrating flavors than the slow cooker. But cleaning the pressure cooker is a PITA, compared to the other two. And it has a smaller effective volume when you allow for the space needed to build pressure. As with the other two methods, you can dry out your food here, too! Pay attention to the recommended cooking time.
That’s my take on it.
mainly because it means I’m in the kitchen making something good and the process makes it fun!
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